System and method for synchronizing ledger accounts by company group

ABSTRACT

A system and method for keeping ledger accounts in synchronization between a back-end procurement system and a front-end requisition and catalog system. An extract utility extracts a file of general ledger (G/L) accounts, including account code, description, and company code, from a chart of accounts in the back-end and transfers it to the front-end, where it is updated by an update utility to include company group code from a company group table and then loaded into a data store of valid general ledger accounts. Maintenance of the front end data store of valid accounts includes pushing to all companies in a company group ledger code entered with respect to any one of the companies in that group.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/815,317 filed 22 Mar. 2001 by Timothy R. Kane,et al. for System and Method for Synchronizing Ledger Accounts byCompany Group.

The following U.S. patent applications, filed concurrently or otherwisecopending, are assigned to the assignee hereof and contain subjectmatter related, in certain respect, to the subject matter of the presentapplication.

Ser. No. 09/657,215, filed 7 Sep. 2000, entitled “System and Method forClustering Servers for Performance and Load Balancing”;

Ser. No. 09/657,216, filed 7 Sep. 2000, entitled “System and Method forFront End Business Logic and Validation”;

Ser. No. 09/657,217, filed 7 Sep. 2000, entitled “System and Method forData Transfer With Respect to External Applications”;

Ser. No. 09/656,037, filed 7 Sep. 2000, entitled “System and Method forProviding a Relational Database Backend”, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,681,229B1, issued 20 Jan. 2004;

Ser. No. 09/656,803, filed 7 Sep. 2000, entitled “System and Method forProviding a Role Table GUI via Company Group”;

Ser. No. 09/656,967, filed 7 Sep. 2000, entitled “System and Method forPopulating HTML Forms Using Relational Database Agents”;

Ser. No. 09/657,196, filed 7 Sep. 2000, entitled “System and Method forCatalog Administration Using Supplier Provided Flat Files”;

Ser. No. 09/657,195, filed 7 Sep. 2000, entitled “System and Method forProviding an Application Navigator Client Menu Side Bar”;

Ser. No. 09/819,462, filed 28 Mar. 2001, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORAUTOMATING INVOICE PROCESSING WITH POSITIVE CONFIRMATION”;

Ser. No. 09/815,318, filed 22 Mar. 2001, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORGENERATING A COMPANY GROUP USER PROFILE”;

Ser. No. 09/819,437, filed 28 Mar. 2001, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORSHARING DATA ACROSS FRAMES USING ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES”;

Ser. No. 09/815,320, filed 22 Mar. 2001, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORGROUPING COMPANIES ACCORDING TO ACCOUNTING SYSTEM OR RULES”;

Ser. No. 09/815,316, filed 22 Mar. 2001, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORFRAME STORAGE OF EXECUTABLE CODE”;

Ser. No. 09/815,313, filed 22 Mar. 2001, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORINVOICE IMAGING THROUGH NEGATIVE CONFIRMATION PROCESS”;

Ser. No. 09/815,312, filed 22 Mar. 2001, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORLEVERAGING PROCUREMENT ACROSS COMPANIES AND COMPANY GROUPS”;

Ser. No. 09/816,264, filed 23 Mar. 2001, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORPROCESSING TAX CODES BY COMPANY GROUP”; and

Ser. No. 09/798,598, filed 2 Mar. 2001, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORMANAGING INTERNET TRADING NETWORKS”.

The above-identified patent applications are incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field of the Invention

This invention pertains to accounting and procurement systems. Moreparticularly, it relates to synchronizing ledger accounts by companygroup between a front-end requisition and catalog system and a back-endaccounting and procurement system.

2. Background Art

There is a need in the art for a system and method for keeping ledgeraccounts in synchronization between a back-end procurement system and afront-end requisition and catalog system.

In such a system, the same general ledger accounts must exist in eachsystem. This is typically solved by daily bridging of accounts from theback-end procurement system to the front-end requisition and catalogsystem.

However, maintaining such synchronization when implemented for manydifferent customer companies by an enterprise providing procurementservices to these customer companies is complex and time consuming,often involving manual updating of a vast number of commodity documentsdescribing the commodities available to customers entering requisitions.There is, therefore, a need for a much simplified and automaticsynchronization process.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved system andmethod for synchronizing ledger accounts between a back-end procurementsystem and a front-end requisition and catalog system.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a system and methodfor synchronizing such ledger accounts in an enterprise on behalf of alarge number of customer companies.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system and method for keeping ledger accounts in synchronizationbetween a back-end procurement system and a front-end requisition andcatalog system. An extract utility extracts a file of general ledger(G/L) accounts, including account code, description, and company code,from a chart of accounts in the back-end and transfers it to thefront-end, where it is updated by an update utility to include companygroup code from a company group table and then loaded into a data storeof valid general ledger accounts. Maintenance of the front end datastore of valid accounts includes pushing to all companies in a companygroup code entered with respect to one of the companies in that group.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention, there is provided acomputer program product configured to be operable for maintainingledger accounts in synchronization between a back-end procurement systemand a front-end requisition and catalog system where they are associatedby company group code.

Other features and advantages of this invention will become apparentfrom the following detailed description of the presently preferredembodiment of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a high level system diagram illustrating an enterprise systemfor providing procurement services with respect to a plurality ofvendors on behalf of a plurality of company groups of related customercompanies in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the extract and update utilities of thepreferred embodiment of the invention for synchronizing the chart ofaccounts by company group code across front-end and back-end systems.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the generation of a data store of validaccounts.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the generation of a drop down list ofaccount code/description data.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1, the procurement services organization of anenterprise 244 provides procurement services to a plurality of companies248, 249 organized in a plurality of company groups 241-243 with respectto a plurality of vendors 245-247.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, in accordance with a preferred embodiment ofthe invention, a system and method is provided for keeping ledgeraccounts in synchronization between a back-end procurement system 42, aprocurement system, such as SAP, and a front-end requisition and catalogsystem 40, such as the IBM requisition and catalog system referred to asReq/Cat Web. Company grouping codes are applied to general ledgeraccounts (GL) bridged from SAP to Req/Cat Web (RCW).

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, an enterprise resourceplanning system 42, known as SAP, is used as the procurement engine andaccounts payable system for an enterprise, such as IBM, which providesprocurement services for a plurality of customer companies 248.

REQ/CAT Web (RCW) 40 is a requisition system implemented on a companyintranet.

In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention a bridgegenerally comprising an extract utility 258 and an update utility 250 isprovided to extract a file of general ledger (G/L) accounts 49,including account code 260, description 262, and company code 248, froma chart of accounts 252 in SAP 42 and transfer it to RCW 40, where it isupdated by utility 250 to associate company group code 253 from companygroup table 251 and then loaded into a data store 254 of valid generalledger accounts. This association of company group code 253 to company248 may be by physically including field 253 in the data store 254record, or logically by referencing company group table 251 by companycode 248 to obtain company group code 253.

Referring to FIG. 3, the bridge and store are maintained at a companylevel.

The chart of accounts (also referred to as the general ledger) iscombined by company groups in data store 254 for means of access anddata integrity.

Referring to FIG. 4, a procurement administrator interfaces with RCW 40to provide for each company commodity code a company commodity documentdescribing in detail the commodity. This commodity document is used inassociation with a company group association table 272 to generate adrop down list 280 of valid accounts for use by a customer requester inpreparing a requisition. Associated with each commodity code 268 are oneor more purchasing types, such as expense, capital, external (resale),unallowable and allowable buys. Company group association table 272 isprovided for associating commodity codes 268 with general ledger accountcodes 276 from data store 254. Those account codes 276 corresponding tocommodity codes 268 for buy type 270 and company group 242 from table251 for the company 249 of this customer requestor are presented in dropdown list 280 as account codes 278 and description 282.

When updating the company group association table, the addition orchange of a commodity code 274/account code 276 association entered onbehalf a company 249 is pushed to all other companies 248 in the companygroup 242.

Advantages Over the Prior Art

It is an advantage of the invention that there is provided an improvedsystem and method for synchronizing ledger accounts between a back-endprocurement system and a front-end requisition and catalog system.

It is a further advantage of the invention that there is provided asystem and method for synchronizing such ledger accounts in anenterprise on behalf of a large number of customer companies.

Alternative Embodiments

It will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments of theinvention have been described herein for purposes of illustration,various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention. In particular, it is within the scope of theinvention to provide a computer program product or program element, or aprogram storage or memory device such as a solid or fluid transmissionmedium, magnetic or optical wire, tape or disc, or the like, for storingsignals readable by a machine, for controlling the operation of acomputer according to the method of the invention and/or to. structureits components in accordance with the system of the invention.

Further, each step of the method may be executed on any generalcomputer, such as an IBM System 390, AS/400, PC or the like and pursuantto one or more, or a part of one or more, program elements, modules orobjects generated from any programming language, such as C++, JavaScript, Java, Pl/1, Fortran or the like. And still further, each saidstep, or a file or object or the like implementing each said step, maybe executed by special purpose hardware or a circuit module designed forthat purpose.

Accordingly, the scope of protection of this invention is limited onlyby the following claims and their equivalents.

1-3. (canceled)
 4. A digital computer system for operating a procurementaccounting system for a plurality of customer companies of an enterpriseproviding procurement services to a plurality of company groups, eachsaid company group including a different plurality of said customercompanies, comprising: a first digital computing device for implementinga back-end procurement system; a second digital computing device forimplementing a front-end requisition and catalog system; a first chartof accounts store maintained in an electronic storage device at saidprocurement system; a second chart of accounts maintained in anelectronic storage device at said requisition and catalog system of agiven customer company within a given group of customer companies whichdiffers from a chart of accounts for a different group of said customercompanies; an extract utility at said procurement system forperiodically extracting from said first chart of accounts digitalsignals representing account identification indicia and descriptiveinformation for a given company; an update utility at said requisitionand catalog system for associating said account identification indiciawith commodity codes and company group codes; a data store for storingdigital signals representing said indicia and information; a companygroup table for storing company identifiers associated with each of aplurality of company group codes in an electronic storage device; saidupdate utility further for pushing to all companies within a companygroup code associations of commodity codes and account identificationindicia entered for a given company within said company group codes; andan output device responsive to a user request for a purchase of acommodity for displaying a selection list of valid account codes anddescriptive information for said company group code. 5-7. (canceled) 8.A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying aprogram of instructions executable by a machine to perform method stepsfor maintaining synchronization of ledger accounts between a back-endprocurement system and a front-end requisition and catalog system onbehalf of a plurality of customer companies of an enterprise providingprocurement services to a plurality of company groups, each said companygroup including a different plurality of said customer companies,comprising: a computer readable storage medium; first programinstructions for associating a plurality of customer companies within acompany group, said customer companies within said group using a samechart of accounts which differs from a chart of accounts for a differentgroup of said customer companies; second program instructions formaintaining a chart of accounts in said procurement system,; thirdprogram instructions for periodically extracting from said chart ofaccounts, account identification indicia and descriptive information fora given company; fourth program instructions for communicating saidindicia and information to said requisition and catalog system of saidgiven company; fifth program instructions at said requisition andcatalog system, for storing said indicia and information in a data storeof valid general ledger accounts associated with said company group codefor said given customer company; sixth program instructions forassociating commodity codes with said account identification indicia;seventh program instructions for pushing commodity code/accountidentification associations to all other companies in said company groupof said given customer company; eighth program instructions responsiveto a user request for a requisition of a commodity, for providing aselection list of valid account codes and descriptions authorized forpurchase by users from companies within said company group; and whereinsaid first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighthprogram instructions are recorded on said computer readable storagemedium.
 9. A computer program storage element for storing as digitalsignals program instructions for controlling the operation of a computerfor maintaining synchronization of ledger accounts between a back-endprocurement system and a front-end requisition and catalog system onbehalf of a plurality of customer companies of an enterprise providingprocurement services to a plurality of company groups, each said companygroup including a different plurality of said customer companies, saidcomputer program element comprising: first program instructions forassociating a plurality of companies within a company group, companieswithin said group using a same chart of accounts which differs from achart of accounts for a different group of said companies; secondprogram instructions for maintaining a chart of accounts in saidprocurement system; third program instructions for periodicallyextracting from said chart of accounts, account identification indiciaand descriptive information for a given customer company; fourth programinstructions for communicating said indicia and information to saidrequisition and catalog system; at said requisition and catalog system,fifth program instructions for storing said indicia and information in adata store of valid general ledger accounts associated with said companygroup code for said given customer company; sixth program instructionsfor associating commodity codes with said account identificationindicia; seventh program instructions for pushing commodity code/accountidentification associations to all other companies in said company groupof said given customer company; and eighth program instructionsresponsive to a user request for a requisition of a commodity, forproviding a selection list of valid account codes and descriptionsauthorized for purchase by users from companies within said companygroup; and wherein said first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth,seventh, and eighth program instructions are recorded on said computerprogram storage element. 10-11. (canceled)